Google CEO promises high-end tablet in six months

Although Google has numerous hardware partners selling smartphones and tablets based on its Android operating system, the search giant is no stranger to adding its own devices to the competitive fray. Already, we've seen Google roll out a series of Nexus-branded smartphones with cooperation from HTC and Samsung. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has now revealed that the company is working on a tablet of its very own.

In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera, Schmidt doesn't mince words: "in the next six months we plan to market a tablet of the highest quality." The latter part of that statement suggests that Google intends to go head-to-head with premium tablets like the iPad rather than to compete with budget designs like Amazon's Kindle Fire. The third-generation iPad is expected to be released next year with a high-density display, so Google will certainly have its work cut out if it intends to offer a worthy rival.

Google's decision to compete with other device makers doesn't seem to have slowed Android's momentum in the smartphone space. Given the amount of fragmentation in the tablet market, it would be nice to have a sort of gold standard—Android as Google intended it—against which to compare other implementations that attempt to improve upon the OS with various widgets and UI treatments. Thanks to X-bit Labs for the tip.